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The Senate Intelligence Committee report on Benghazi

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  • The Senate Intelligence Committee report on Benghazi

    The report is here (85 page pdf).

    I cut and pasted the findings:

    FINDING #1: In the months before the attacks on September 11,2012, the IC
    provided ample strategic warning that the security situation in eastern Libya
    was deteriorating and that U.S. facilities and personnel were at risk in
    Benghazi.

    FINDING #2: The State Department should have increased its security
    posture more significantly in Benghazi based on the deteriorating security
    situation on the ground and IC threat reporting on the prior attacks against
    Westerners in Benghazi -- including two incidents at the Temporary Mission
    Facility on April 6 and June 6, 2012.

    FINDING #3: There was no singular "tactical warning" in the intelligence
    reporting leading up to the events on September 11, 2012, predicting an attack
    on U.S. facilities in Benghazi on the 9/11 anniversary, although State and the
    CIA both sent general warning notices to facilities worldwide noting the
    potential security concerns associated with the anniversary. Such a specific
    warning should not have been expected, however, given the limited
    intelligence collection of the Benghazi area at the time.

    FINDING #4: Although the IC relied heavily on open source press reports in
    the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the IC conducted little analysis of
    open source extremist-affiliated social media prior to and immediately after
    the attacks.

    FINDING #5: There were "tripwires" designed to prompt a reduction in
    personnel or the suspension of operations at the Mission facility in Benghazi
    and although there is evidence that some of them had been crossed, operations
    continued with minimal change. Some nations closed their diplomatic
    facilities in Benghazi as the security conditions deteriorated during the
    summer of 2012, but other nations stayed along with the United States,
    contrary to some public reports and statements that the U.S. was the last
    country represented in Benghazi.

    FINDING #6: The State Department personnel at the Temporary Mission
    Facility in Benghazi relied on the security officers at the CIA Annex as a last
    resort for security in the event of an attack.

    FINDING #7: There were no U.S. military resources in position to intervene
    in short order in Benghazi to help defend the Temporary Mission Facility and
    its Annex on September 11 and 12, 2012.

    FINDING #8: Unarmed U.S. military surveillance assets were not delayed
    when responding to the attack, and they provided important situational
    awareness for those under siege during the attacks against the Temporary
    Mission Facility and the Annex on September 11 and 12,2012.

    FINDING #9: In finished reports after September 11, 2012, intelligence
    analysts inaccurately referred to the presence of a protest at the Mission
    facility before the attack based on open source information and limited
    intelligence, but without sufficient intelligence or eyewitness statements to
    corroborate that assertion. The IC took too long to correct these erroneous
    reports, which caused confusion and influenced the public statements of
    policymakers.

    FINDING #10: The State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research
    (INR) did not disseminate any independent analysis in the year following the
    Benghazi attacks.

    FINDING #11: The DNI's Office of Analytic Integrity and Standards (AIS)
    failed to provide complete and accurate information to Congress during its
    review of the Benghazi attacks. The Committee found AIS's methodology in
    assembling documents to be flawed. Despite repeated requests from the
    Committee, AIS also refused to provide complete, accurate, and thoroughly
    cited information to Congress.

    FINDING #12: The co-location of IC and diplomatic personnel in Benghazi
    could have enhanced security; but co-location often presents tradeoffs that
    should be carefully evaluated in high-threat environments.

    FINDING_ #13: The primary Source of security for the Temporary Mission
    Facility, local Libyan militia members, failed to provide any significant
    defense of the compound from the attack.

    FINDING #14: More than a year after the Benghazi attacks, the terrorists
    who perpetrated the attacks have still not been brought to justice. The IC has
    identified several individuals responsible for the attacks. Some of the
    individuals have been identified with a strong level of confidence. However,
    insight into the current whereabouts and links between these individuals in
    some cases is limited due in part to the nascent intelligence capabilities in the
    region.
    WaPo has a couple of takeaways here.

    “The attacks were preventable, based on extensive intelligence reporting on the terrorist activity in Libya — to include prior threats and attacks against Western targets — and given the known security shortfalls at the U.S. Mission,” the panel said in a statement.

    The report also noted, chillingly, that the FBI’s investigation into the attacks has been hampered in Libya, and that 15 people “supporting the investigation or otherwise helpful to the United States” have since been killed in Benghazi. The report said it was unclear whether those killings were related to the investigation.
    Now, how do you suppose the killers might know who's been working with the FBI? I wonder.
    Enjoy.

  • #2
    Second link requires a log in. I'm guessing this is not NPR approved reporting, since it's Benghazi and apparently, according to Bok, there is insufficient Benghazi reporting there.
    Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live...
    Robert Southwell, S.J.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by phillygirl View Post
      Second link requires a log in. I'm guessing this is not NPR approved reporting, since it's Benghazi and apparently, according to Bok, there is insufficient Benghazi reporting there.
      I didn't say Benghazi; they report on that. I said BENGHAZI!!!!

      There's a difference. I am pretty sure you know what it is. You are clever that way.
      Colonel Vogel : What does the diary tell you that it doesn't tell us?

      Professor Henry Jones : It tells me, that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try *reading* books instead of *burning* them!

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Billy Jingo View Post
        I didn't say Benghazi; they report on that. I said BENGHAZI!!!!

        There's a difference. I am pretty sure you know what it is. You are clever that way.
        You're like a walking advertisement for the tactics of your party.
        May we raise children who love the unloved things - the dandelion, the worm, the spiderlings.
        Children who sense the rose needs the thorn and run into rainswept days the same way they turn towards the sun...
        And when they're grown and someone has to speak for those who have no voice,
        may they draw upon that wilder bond, those days of tending tender things and be the one.

        Comment


        • #5
          I haven't read them all but the closing remarks at the end of the report by members from each party are really interesting.
          May we raise children who love the unloved things - the dandelion, the worm, the spiderlings.
          Children who sense the rose needs the thorn and run into rainswept days the same way they turn towards the sun...
          And when they're grown and someone has to speak for those who have no voice,
          may they draw upon that wilder bond, those days of tending tender things and be the one.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by phillygirl View Post
            Second link requires a log in. I'm guessing this is not NPR approved reporting, since it's Benghazi and apparently, according to Bok, there is insufficient Benghazi reporting there.
            I don't really care if you're snarky. I'm obviously not one to complain about snark. But you do complain about snark, and then, almost immediately, go a-snarkin' yourself. You're kinda working both sides of the street, there.
            Enjoy.

            Comment


            • #7
              This report doesn't mesh well with the GOP narrative on this. The "inspired by protests" story comes from the IC, not from the White House. The attack was not al qaeda sanctioned (although FOX makes liberal use of the term "linked"). And no military responders were told to stand down.
              Enjoy.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Norm dePlume View Post
                I don't really care if you're snarky. I'm obviously not one to complain about snark. But you do complain about snark, and then, almost immediately, go a-snarkin' yourself. You're kinda working both sides of the street, there.
                I don't complain about snark, I merely notice it. Then it reminds me to snark. Like drinking enough water during the day, sometimes I have to be reminded to meet my minimum snark requirements.
                Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live...
                Robert Southwell, S.J.

                Comment

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